Giants' Fassel Always Keeps It On The Level

CHARLES BRICKER ON THE NFL

January 21, 2001|CHARLES BRICKER ON THE NFL

"I'm not one of those coaches who can pat a player on the butt one moment, then turn around and tell someone he's not that good. That's not me," Jim Fassel said as he walked briskly back to his office at Giants Stadium last week.

There is no one coaching style that takes you to a Super Bowl. Jimmy Johnson liked to make his players feel so insecure they would constantly feel as if they were playing for their jobs. Vince Lombardi demanded absolute discipline.

Fassel got the New York Giants there with his personal passion and that single ingredient that has dominated his coaching career -- absolute honesty. One story sizes up Fassel's commitment to candor.

It was 1988 and he was well into his tenure as coach at the University of Utah, which geographically is not far from Brigham Young University, but it is worlds apart from BYU in recruiting quarter-backs.

A succession of great throwers already had played for coach LaVell Edwards, including Jim McMahon and Steve Young. And now a tall, athletic lefty named Scott Mitchell (who later became a Dolphin) had finished a record-setting high school career in Utah. Edwards wanted him. Badly.

It was all uphill for Fassel, and he recruited Mitchell hard, telling him exactly how he would be used but never embellishing or promising anything other than a chance to compete for the job. There would be no special treatment. And certainly there would not be the adulation or publicity that comes to BYU quarterbacks.

On the day he had to declare, Mitchell summoned Fassel to a meeting at a college diner not far from the BYU campus. Fassel walked in, looked around and saw Mitchell sitting in a booth under a very large, color photo of Edwards. He sat down, not expecting good news.

"I've decided," Mitchell said. "You've been very committed to me, and I'm ready to commit myself to Utah."

The eyes have it

Cut to January of 1999. Giants Vice President/General Manager Ernie Accorsi was contemplating whether to take a chance on quarterback Kerry Collins. He had been released by the Saints, spent a month in an alcohol rehab center and was once among the most reviled players in the NFL for quitting on the Carolina Panthers, the team that drafted him No. 5 in the first round in 1995.

Certainly Accorsi knew the downside, but there was all that talent and some common bonds. Both had ties in the Lebanon, Pa., area, where Collins grew up.

"I could ask him if ever ate at DeAngela's Pizza, and he knew exactly what I meant," Accorsi said. Both were connected to Penn State. Collins played there, and Accorsi had become a good friend of coach Joe Paterno through his associations in the NFL.

"I knew and trusted people at Penn State," Accorsi said. "I spent probably three weeks investigating Kerry Collins, asking people about him, trying to get a full picture of his character." But, as so often happens in personnel evaluations, it came down to a face-to-face meeting.

"There wasn't any one question I asked him where he impressed me with the answer," Accorsi said. "It was the way he looked me straight in the eyes. I had seen him in a television interview not long before that, and he wasn't looking into the camera. This time, he looked right at me. I felt very good about him."

He signed Collins to a four-year, $16.9 million contract that was full of behavior clauses and ... voila! In two years, Collins and the Giants are in the Super Bowl.

Third-and-long

Donovan McNabb, Jeff Garcia and Collins had great years but, statistically, Mark Brunell had as good a second half of the season as any of them. So now the Jaguars are going to have to pay. After throwing eight touchdowns and 10 interceptions in the first eight games, Brunell threw 12 TDs and four interceptions in the last eight. With Jacksonville up against the salary cap, he's in position to exchange a new cap-friendly contract for a signing bonus that probably will hit $12 million.

Now that it's over for the Raiders, the No. 1 player personnel priority is finding younger linebackers. Not one of the three starters (Greg Biekert, Elijah Alexander, William Thomas) is younger than 30.

Reading between the lines of remarks made by new Bills President/General Manager Tom Donohoe: Doug Flutie, not Rob Johnson, is his quarterback.

Prediction: Nate Webster, the knock-your-block-off former Hurricane, will replace Jamie Duncan at starting middle linebacker for the Buccaneers next season. Duncan was OK, sometimes exceptional, in replacing Hardy Nickerson, but he doesn't make the big plays. The Bucs' rush-defense went from 87.9 yards per game in 1999 to 103.0 this season. That's not a big increase. But Webster has more ability to fire up a defense, as Nickerson did.

Browns President Carmen Policy and his vice president, Dwight Clark, have been given a third year by owner Al Lerner, and they had better start making some better decisions on personnel. Clark's drafts have been horrible, and now Policy, against advice by Lerner, fired coach Chris Palmer. The Browns are 5-27.